Animal Form and Function

All animals need to meet their basic needs of food, water, shelter, and right temperature. In some cases, animals also require a means of protection from predators and means to attract a mate for reproduction.

Animals need to incorporate all these characteristics to survive and carry on with the lifecycle of the species. The body parts and behaviors of the animals are the results of evolution over time where the fittest of the species will survive and pass on their characteristics to future generations. Animals that cannot, die and do not pass on their characteristics to future generations.

==Golden Dart Frog==	The Golden Dart Frog has adapted itself to be one of the most poisonous animals in the entire Animal Kingdom. As such, the skin of one Golden Dart Frog is enough to kill 1000 people. Animals identify themselves as poisonous through coloring to other animals as a means of protection.
==Tortoise==	The tortoise has an interesting adaptation for shelter and food. The tortoise's backbone has evolved into a hard outer shell. The legs of the tortoise are strong enough to lift a small car due to the weight of the shell it carries. The tortoise has an elongated neck to reach higher food sources that would it not otherwise reach. Giraffes have a similar adaptation for reaching trees in the African savanna.
==Zebra==	The zebras have a group method of protection. Zebras have a striped pattern that blends together with other zebras when running from predators. This makes it difficult for predators to determine where one zebra begins and another ends in a herd during hunting. Attacking the wrong end of zebra would result in damage to the predator. Predators such as lions would try to separate individual zebras from the herd in order to attack correctly.
Great White Shark	The Great White Shark is known as an eating machine. The Great White Shark has developed an interesting adaptation for catching food. The shark continually grows replaceable teeth for those lost during hunting. In the photo you can see some of the teeth that haven't "rolled" out yet and are pointed in the opposite direction from the teeth the shark is using.